Current technology for aircraft controls, flight simulator control systems, and manufacturing control systems utilize extensive numbers of remotely controlled devices to actuate various systems or features that may be present or used in such systems. For example, an aircraft may include thousands of remotely controlled devices for actuating movable parts or features of the aircraft such as elevators, ailerons, flaps, and the like. Each of these devices may be remotely controlled from a central controller via an electrical signal provided through a current conductor wired from the controller to the remote device. Input to the central controller may be provided by sensors, such as switches or relays activated by a pilot from a cockpit control panel. The central controller activates a switch or relay corresponding to an input from the pilot to provide an appropriate control signal to the corresponding device. In the aircraft environment, the large number of remotely controlled devices requires a correspondingly large number of conductor cables to provide control signals to each of the devices. Such cabling typically comprises wire bundles that may be multiple inches in diameter. The amount of wiring used in applications, such as in an aircraft, may actually reach numbers that are measured in miles of wire. Problems associated with conventional electrically wired remote control technology includes the weight of the conductors, relatively high power requirements, EMI susceptibility, complicated electronics for monitoring the switches, corrosion susceptibility, relatively high heat production, electronic crosstalk between conductors, and difficult maintainability.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system that will reduce the volume of conductors and provide for a more reliable method for controlling remote devices.